Homily for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time — Year C
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Today, Our Lord expands upon the Beatitudes which He gave us last week. He connects His fourth Beatitude (“Blessed are you when people hate you…”) with today’s opening statement, (“Love your enemies…”) clarifying His previous Teaching in a succinct and well-structured admonition in which He concretizes the Beatitudes in real, measurable moral choices and behaviors.
He packs a lot in, teaching us to:
+love our enemies
+not retaliate when offended
+give without expectations
+be merciful
+stop judging and condemning
+forgive, even when difficult.
Let’s look briefly at each of these to see how we can adapt them into a life of Beatitude for ourselves.
LOVE YOUR ENEMIES; DO GOOD TO THOSE WHO HATE YOU
This was an entirely new concept for His listeners. Jews were taught to love their neighbor, but to hate their enemies. Why? It was a means of survival. Then, as now, the Jews were surrounded by enemies, be they political, cultural or religious. Maintaining the hatred was a way to keep up their guard against a perpetually imminent attack.
But Jesus was speaking of something more close to home; He is speaking of interpersonal relations, of making peace in the moment. Look at our society today, where heightened tensions have created enmity, even within families, concerning those same political, cultural and religious grounds. We can see this enmity between liberals and conservatives… pro-life and pro-abortion advocates… vaxxers and anti-vaxxers… Yankees and Red Sox fans.
Where can we find common ground? How can we bring peace to the moment, if not to the world as a whole? Through turning to Jesus Christ who, from the Cross prayed for His persecutors, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He expands on His statement of loving our enemies with a simple spiritual exercise, saying, “Bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”
This spiritual approach might not change the malice of the intruder, but it lifts us above the situation, to a place of interior peace.
TURN THE OTHER CHEEK
The Lord is not speaking about pacifism here. He is suggesting we choose our battles wisely by de-escalating unnecessary violence in the immediate moment, not as milquetoasts, but as peacemakers, one of His Beatitudes.
GIVE, AND LEND GENEROUSLY
Here the Lord asks us to be generous without counting the cost. Giving to others, to Charities and even to the Sunday Collection, should sting a little, which is the outward sign of generosity. When people come to the door of the Rectory seeking assistance, we help them by paying for rent, utilities, food, etc. When some of them promise to pay us back, I say, “That would be good…” in order to maintain their dignity, and then finish the statement, saying, “… but it’s not necessary.” In my own life I have been a recipient of a loan forgiven before it was payed off. My Dad loaned me the money to buy my first car, then, when I quit my job to enter the seminary, he never asked for the remaining payments.
DO UNTO OTHERS AS YOU WOULD HAVE THEM DO UNTO YOU
Known as The Golden Rule, Jesus gives us a basic, unadorned instruction not to be motivated in our interactions with others by self-interest, but to be insightful, recognizing other people’s needs, and interacting with them as they deserve, venerating the good within them as Children of God.
BE MERCIFUL, AS YOUR FATHER IS MERCIFUL
This statement parallels closely the Lord’s statement in the fifth chapter of Matthew’s Gospel: “You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” This takes us a step higher even than what the Lord has just said in “Do unto others…” Here He admonishes us to go beyond justice (giving people what they deserve, in the best sense of this) in order to come to mercy (giving people what they need) not in the material sense, as above, but for their spiritual benefit. Here is what Saint Caesarius of Arles wrote back in the Sixth Century:
“Everyone wants to have mercy shown to them, but few show mercy to others. How can you dare to ask for what you are not prepared to give? He who desires the mercy of heaven should show mercy here on earth. There is earthly, human mercy and heavenly, divine mercy. What is human mercy? Human mercy is concern for the suffering of the poor. What is divine mercy? Divine mercy is forgiveness of sins. The human mercy we show during the pilgrimage of our life on earth will be repaid with divine mercy in our heavenly homeland. Our Lord suffers cold and hunger and thirst in the poor of this world, as He Himself said, ‘Whatever you do to the least of my people, you do to me.’ God, who gives all in heaven, wishes to receive from man in this world.”
STOP JUDGING AND YOU WILL NOT BE JUDGED…STOP CONDEMNING AND YOU WILL NOT BE CONDEMNED
Judgmentalism is one of the most-frequently confessed sins. It sometimes smacks of the psychological notion of “projection,” — that is — projecting onto, or pointing out in others that which we choose not to address in ourselves. This admonition brings with it a promised reward —that is — escaping judgment and condemnation of our own deserving. It brings to mind the words in the Lord’s Prayer: “..forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those…” so that our backing away from judging or condemning others might bring a holy, merciful judgment from God.
In summary, when Our Lord teaches us to:
+love our enemies
+turn the other cheek
+give and lend generously
+do good unto others
+be merciful and forgiving
+ judge not, nor condemn…
He is drawing us to a counter-cultural intuition in which we choose the higher good because it is the higher good, but also because it pleases God and makes us more godly.
This Gospel passage can give us a good basis from which to prepare for our observance of Lent, which begins in just two weeks.